Would there be a reason to love god if there was no hell?

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I asked myself this question once... Would there seriously be a reason to love god if there was no hell? I have a feeling that nobody would go to church or even bother with religion if there was no hell or devil. People only "love" or "believe" in god because they are scared to go to hell. They believe because they don't want to suffer after dying. I don't think that they really love god. Think of it.... If there was no hell would you even bother with religion? Why love someone for no reason? Even if a god created us, does that give us reason to love him?

I certainly didn't fall in love with my wife because I was afraid of what she might do to me otherwise - fact is, she would have utterly ignored me otherwise. No, I fell in love with her "for no reason".

In my personal theology, which differs from the standard issue in more ways than I'm prepared to go into just now, Hell is a place of one's own making - in order to get there, you have to deny God in this life; to stay there, you have to continue to deny Him even when He's just rubbed your nose in His existence. I believe sincere penitence can get you out of Hell, although the nature of that penitence may become more severe, depending on exactly why you're there in the first place (no, Hitler doesn't just get to say, "Oops, my bad. Sorry," and get to Heaven - he would have to show his penitence somehow).

I don't think I could love a Supreme Being who runs His own private torture chamber, with no escape. That's not love - that's terror. My love for God stems more from an appreciation of His aesthetics and sense of humor (come on, what humorless deity is going to make the platypus?), and for the wonders of the Universe around us.

(Note to the overly-literal: I use a male pronoun here because this language forces one to choose a gender pronoun for a living entity, and that's the one I'm used to. I'm not claiming God is male, nor female, nor both, nor neither - what would I know about a deity's sex life, anyway?)

Patrick,

Your vision of religion and after-life is very Christian. Not all religions share that perspective. Not all religions have a Christian concept of Hell where people get punished eternally for sins they committed while alive. Yet, even without such a concept of Hell, love of God can be a central tenet of a religion.

Whether or not there is a hell it is worthwhile to wonder why one would love God. Love is a strong emotion. We each know our parents created us yet love of parents is an extremely variable emotion. I am reasonably sure that the normal chemical processes and physical forces created all life including me but I cannot say I love them. They are merely what is there. Love of God is a puzzle to me.

If you believe in God as the creator of everything, who made the world we live in, gave us life to be in it and the capacity to be happy, and breaks from many of our own mistakes in that life, why not love God? Don't we normally love someone who does wonderful things for us over and over?

If you don't believe in God and feel that everything is the result of accidents, coincidences, and so on, then it's a moot point.

I know God exists but I will NOT preach to anyone. I'm not qualified.

Ask your self this,
If you was a god, and existed long before time began,
would you create a race of people that was able to learn and grow and become
something other then what you originally created? and if so why?
and in the end, what is it your hoping to find or get out of it all?
Could it possibly be, true love and friendship? companionship?

Or possibly an experiment with odd stuff. Do genetic experimenters who create new cell types love their experiments. I doubt it.

I think many Christians go to church as a kind of life insurance. I also had a long discussion with a friend the other day. My point was that a religion like Christianity was created by man to keep society morally in line and to buld the physical environment (churches instigated taxes, a tenth of your income, to build roads, etc). Despite being a very intelligent person, this guy said he'd rather stick with Christianity out of fear for eternal condemnantion.

People are not really scared of the Devil but of God. I mean who here, in 2008, who's life has been a hell on earth can still be scared of the archaic image of the Devil?

OP, yes. I don't think most people do ti just to avoid hell. I don't think that's "love" either.

I have a reason: God has helped me.

Definitely a lot of issue of fear, but the proper Christian response is to say that God is loved because God deserves love, and that this has little to do with punishment, and perhaps more to do with reward. Often God is not seen as the sender to hell, but rather the deliverer from hell, which is sort of odd, but it is not an odd Christian idea to thank Jesus for saving people from hell.

Most Christians that I talk to argue that hell is something of our own doing rather than a direct punishment from God. Yet they simultaneously argue that salvation is not of our own doing but part of God’s will. At least that’s the Calvinist perspective that I’m aware of.

It would seem to me that if salvation is God’s will than so is sending people to hell. Any argument that God doesn’t literally send people to hell seems to me like a propped up argument to make God look better from our perspective. After all, it’s hard to love a God who would send humans to suffer for eternity merely for being “imperfect” to his standards. That just doesn’t seem reasonable at all to me, but Christian apologists have to find a way to make it sound reasonable. Otherwise it would be impossible to love such a God.

Bingo. I read the title of this thread and thought the same thing.

Some theologies are fear based (avoiding a lake of fire and brimstone). Others are love based. Some are 'practical' in the sense that they treat God like a prayer genie. Others are based on the idea that church and the ancestors must be on to something. Different people have different reasons for believing what they do.

I think that the idea is not that you go to Hell for any specific sin that you might have committed--rather, all eight billion of us are held as guilty and required to suffer death (and eternal damnation on top of that) because of Adam's transgression--he ate that goofy fruit that he wasn't supposed to eat.

If you believe that Mr. Jesus' death caused you to be forgiven for Adam's transgression (and any subsequent sin on the part of you or any of your ancestors), then, that's it. You are set for eternity.

So, now that you buy this, why go to church? I don't know. I guess you can if you want.

The act of going to church does not guarantee salvation.

Lol, ok lets take this a step farther.
Lucifer was once the head of the angels, spacial, the right hand of god,,
perhaps he was not thrown out of heaven as many was lead to believe,
perhaps when men would not listen to god without fear god sent Lucifer
to a hellish place and ordered him to collect and punish the evil doers of the world once they died,
and those whom came to believe in him are granted the power to assist him in his command given unto him,
there for, if your a Lucifer follower you can get and gain power and enjoy all the 7 deadly sins as you so do please,
and in the end still get to heaven.
while others fall into the trap of fear and follow god out of that fear. pain or glory, your choice.


as for me, I do not cater to terrorists and blackmail.

Good Cop band Cop.